Avant-Garde Film – Forms, Themes and Passions
from Michael O’Pray, Wallflower, 2003
Definitions
Avant-garde – It literally means ‘advanced guard’ of an army. Originally used to describe French paintings of the early nineteenth century. They were an aesthetic and political attack on art – BREAKTHROUGH.
Experimental – this can also be part of commercial cinema and denotes a change in methodology/techniques for mainstream, not necessarily pure avant-gardism.
There is little agreement on how to define this group/style of film. They are hard to categorise by the very nature of the films themselves. Often seen as marginal/other or in opposition to the mainstream/mass. Avant-garde has never become mainstream, unlike arthouse.
Key conventions
- No budget
- Intensely personal
- Completely different distribution and exhibition
- Individual versus team
- Societies/museum/universities versus cinemas
- Does not have a mass audience ideology/conventions to consider
Europe in 1920s
Most influential and creative time of avant-garde film, encompassing a lot of culture – Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism, Expressionism, de Stijl, Futurism… Huge cross-fertilisation of art forms – dance, painting, poetry, music, sculpture, fashion, literature. A mix of high and low art. The idea of creating a ‘pure cinema’ – 6th art. They used a dramatic, not narrative structure. Particularly focused on abstraction, collage, Montage, anti-narrative and poetic
Key people:
- Man Ray – ‘Return to Reason’ (1923). He placed tacks and nails and iron filings on the film strip itself. Focused on the photographic qualities.
- Marcel Duchamp
- Hans Richter – ‘Rhythmus 21′ – qualities of space and depth.
- Dali/Bunuel – Surrealists, ‘Un Chien Andalou’ – This was hard-edged subversion. Used a lot of slow motion and super imposition. ‘An illogical narrative culled from their dreams’, but is it as incoherent as they thought? Many sadistic impulses throughout – sex and aggression. Is it objective (Bunuel is the male) or subjective (titles)? Use conventional editing (shot/reverse shot, point of view, direction, framing and composition). Dali intended it as a critique of modern society, but Bunuel considered it an expression of pure desire.
- Jean Epstein
1920s – Soviet Experiments
The centre of avant-garde and a huge phenomenon because: 1) political revolutionary context 2) ambitious – it engaged with social issues and 3) exciting new forms. It was ‘political idealism, heroic nationhood and artistic achievement’ – it wasn’t just about the art world.
Key People
- Sergei Eisenstein – Montage, ‘Battleship Potempkin’ (1926). He used narrative, no singular heroes, but dramatic and using ideology. Eisenstein liked Hollywood cinema (Ford, Chaplin and Disney) and European art cinema (Pabst, Dreyer and Lang). Influenced Hitchcock and European avant-garde (Dali/Bunuel). He mythologised Russian politics as Ford did for US with Westerns. Used symbolism continuously.
- Lev Kuleshov
- Vsekolod Pudovkin
- Dziga Vertov – ‘Man With A Movie Camera.’ Had a love of the mundane and everyday – Left wing documentary. Rejected dramatic narrative and formalist tricks. This film is actually the diary of a cameraman (actually his brother), who he is then filming. Very meta: ‘one of the great poetic achievements of the cinema.’
1920s – 30s Britain
Focused on documentary, during the 1920s film was seen as a vulgar entertainment. But, the magazine ‘Close Up’ (1925) and The Film Society started to prompt debates, very much led by left-wing loyalty to innovation of Soviet film-makers and psychological realism of Pabst. However, the GPO (General Post Office) films were serious, but did not want to appear cultish
Key people:
- John Grierson – ‘Drifters’
- Alberto Cavalcanti
- Basil Wright
- Len Lye – ‘Tusulava’ and ‘Trade Tattoo’ for the GPO. Employed collage, the film itself, often had a line running through, abstract and very art related (Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore)
1940s – American Mythology
There was a collapse of avant-garde in Europe at this time (mainly because of exhaustion, lack of resources, rise of social realism). It meant a large exodus of artists from Fascism and social unrest. There were new film-makers now dedicated to avant-garde and film: Art in Cinema society in San Francisco and Cinema 16 in New York. These Americans were considered the direct descendant of the European avant-garde, but had a specifically American style/drive.
Key people:
- James Broughton
- Kenneth Anger – critic and proponent of ‘personal cinema’
- Maya Deren – links to dance and poetry
- Sidney Peterson
1950s – The Aesthetics of the Frame
- Stan Brakhage – forged an American visual style. Liked nature, got rid of drama. Used movement of the camera, repetition, rapid editing, movements in the frame. Very painterly.
- Robert Breer – ‘A Man and His Dog Out for Air’. German graphic animation style, influenced by ‘Felix The Cat’ (1930s)
1960s – The New Wave
Controversy – this is no necessarily avant-garde, but experimental. There were many new waves – France primarily, but also Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Germany and Italy. Too commercial (or arthouse), but has much of the same ethos. Also been influential to the avant-garde – political, collage techniques, essayist form, critiques the mainstream. It also is ‘rich’ at many levels: context, techniques, metaphor.
Key people:
- Godard – saw himself as a journalist. Focused on structuralism, Satre and gender issues. Dominated French culture. ‘A Bout de Soufle’ and ‘Two or Three Things I Know About Her.’
- Michelangelo Antonioni – narrative coherence, but poetic. Loved a long take and visual ambiguity. Uses philosophy and psychoanalysis.
- Daniele Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub – static, long-take, diagonal shot and expressionless acting.
The 1960s – Sex, Drugs and Structure
Lithuanian émigré Jonas Mekas founded ‘Film Culture’ in US, 1955. New York was avant-garde centre in 1960s, like Europe had been in the 1920s.
Key people:
- Jack Smith – ‘Flamingo Creatures’ (1963), used Hollywood glamour, but with shocking sexual matter and sub-culture.
- Michael Snow – ‘Wavelength’ (1967) – an international figure.
- Andy Warhol – ‘Sleep’ (1963) Hugely influential, from the art world. Often static and focuses on time and duration.
The 1960s and 1970s – Form Degree Zero
Similar explosion in Europe as US, but ground zero approach. London Film-makers Co-op (LFMC) founded in 1966. They used a lot of experimentation with camera, processor and printer: broke the technological mystique. Also start of many film festivals and important books being written (David Curtis, P. Adams Sitney, Steve Dwoskin, Peter Gidal, Malcolm Le Grice). Theoretical frameworks established, but did it start to get obscure. Focussed on representation and structuralism. However, this slowly dismantled – female/black/gay film-makers left and created own traditions.
The 1980s – The Ghost in the Machine
New Romantic film movement. They rebelled against fore-runners and wanted subject matter. They also wanted decoration, ornament, decadence, symbolism, theatrical mise-en-scene, sexual imagery. It was politically offensive and has many links with arthouse – Jarman, Greenaway and Potter. The New Romantics mostly used video or Super 8, had highly controlled interiors, engaged with pop culture and wanted a synchronisation of the sense – collage/montage work.
Key people:
- Patrick Kieller – documentary
- Jayne Parker – focused on the body – looked at surrealism, symbolism and performance.
- Cerith Wyn Evans – ‘Epiphany’
1990s – Young British Artists
Now moving completely in to the art world, there is not a strong sense of unity or movement, but influences and links can be found. No feeling of avant-garde, very interested in popular culture (Warhol influence.
Key people:
• Sam Taylor-Wood – influence by cinema (Coppola, Scorsese and method acting). Often uses a marginal human figure – ‘Method in Madness’
• Gillian Wearing – documentary and interview style. Often uses video.
• Douglas Gordon – repetitive loops of found film.
• Steve McQueen
For further information:
A History of Experimental Film and Video – A. L. Rees (BFI, 1999)
Miss Hurdley